Five things you might have missed: 12-23

Top stories from this weekend's editions of The Blade

BLADE STAFF

Toledo quarterback Terrance Owens celebrates a 42-41 win against Air Force in the 2011 Military Bowl at RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington. Attendance was 25,042 — capacity is 56,692.ASSOCIATED PRESSEnlarge

For Ohio State, the Orange Bowl carries the promise of a lot of green.

Its showdown against Clemson next month features an advertised payout of $18 million per team — a return surpassed only by the $22 million distributed for the national title game — and the expectation Buckeyes fans will inundate Miami. OSU is in the Orange Bowl for the first time since 1977.

Yet come bowl season, little is as it seems.

That $18 million payday and a packed Sun Life Stadium? A South Beach mirage.

A postseason that features 35 bowl games provides little direct financial reward for success — and for Mid-American Conference schools like Toledo and Bowling Green State University, it’s often punitive. READ MORE

Toledo Machining Plant workers, including Pam Young, foreground, help form an assembly line to get a tractor-trailer full of presents to the children at Family House. THE BLADE/JETTA FRASEREnlarge
|
Buy This Photo

Underwear and cleaning supplies. Toilet paper. Paper plates, paper towels, napkins, and cups. Oh, and one other thing: Getting people who can afford to buy their own meals to stop in and get one for free.

Ask people who run two of Toledo’s busiest homeless shelters what they really need this holiday season — again, what they really need, not what the public usually gives them — and the answers may surprise you, especially as cold as it’s been lately.

Sure, they could use more hats, gloves, parkas, backpacks, boots, and socks.

Such items are never turned down.

But you wanna know what’s most needed at Family House?

“Underwear,” said Renee Palacios, Family House executive director. “Underwear, for sure. Nobody ever wants to donate it, but we need underwear now. It’s our biggest need throughout the year.” READ MORE

Sales specialist Jeff Eckman pushes an Indian Chieftain motorcycle through the showroom at the new Indian Motorcycles dealership, part of the Honda East Toledo dealership but in a separate building on Conant Street in Maumee. The first Indian arrived in the showroom on Nov. 1. THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKYEnlarge
|
Buy This Photo

“If you ask anybody in motorcycles, new people, old people, it doesn’t matter. If they’re into motorcycles, they know the name,” said Gabe Miller, the sales manager at Honda East Toledo in Maumee.

That’s nothing short of remarkable, considering it’s been more than a half-century since Indian enjoyed commercial success.

Established in 1901, the original company shut down its operations in 1953. Many have tried to resurrect the Indian name since then, but none have done so successfully.

None, perhaps, until now.

In 2011, Polaris Industries Ltd. in Minnesota purchased the most recent — and foundering — rendition of the company and spent two years planning for its relaunch of the Indian brand. READ MORE

Jacoya Warren, 18, a Rogers High School student, left, thanks members of the armed forces after giving her biography of a local serviceman killed in World War II. Miss Warren, along with students from other Toledo high schools, was at Scott High School to present stories from local research.THE BLADE/KATIE RAUSCHEnlarge
|
Buy This Photo

Ashlee Wilkerson looked up to the ceiling and dabbed her eyes, wiping away tears shed for John Baertschi, a man she never met.

Later, with Ashlee seated among fellow students in the Scott High School auditorium, Mr. Baertschi’s son, flowers in hand, thanked her for the kind words she’d said about his father, a man he never met.

“I couldn’t have thought of a better person to give a eulogy,” he said.

The pair met only recently. Miss Wilkerson, 17, a Rogers High School senior, reached out to the son about a month ago to ask about the father, whom she was researching for a class project about local men who died in World War II.

The elder Baertschi was a U.S. Navy Seabee, and had volunteered to clear caves on Iwo Jima when he was killed March 26, 1945. Knowing that his son was in the room as she told his story, Ashlee was overcome with emotion.

There are two trends to take away from the November Nielsens: Overall market viewership is up from a year ago, and WTVG-TV, Channel 13, benefited the most.

The ABC affiliate handily won the mornings in total viewers 2 years of age and older and in the coveted 25-54 age demographic, and was the most-watched newscast in total viewers at 5 to 6 p.m., and 6 to 6:30 p.m., a significant reversal from November, 2012.

The good news for WTOL-TV, Channel 11, WTVG’s main ratings rival in the Toledo-area market, is that the station’s morning numbers were up, as was total viewership for its 11 p.m. newscast. Channel 11’s late news has been a ratings stronghold for the CBS affiliate and continues to be viewers’ most-popular choice for the final news broadcast of the day. READ MORE

Recommended for You

Guidelines: Please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. If a comment violates these standards or our privacy statement or visitor's agreement, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report abuse. To post comments, you must be a Facebook member. To find out more, please visit the FAQ.